Keep Away from the Fire-Tipped Arrows

Saturday, June 26th, 2004: The tour started at 11 AM at the Old Homestead Inn and both Roxy and I ended up arriving a few minutes too late to be fashionable, which I was reminded of at the end of the day when checking my messages, as Alli had called me on her cell phone. We used yellow ribbons as tickets, which I said represented the prayers to the west, the direction of joy and music and dance and the setting sun. It also was intended as a prayer to bring our soldiers safely back from Iraq, according to the European meaning of the yellow ribbon. It also helped us keep track of who paid, in a nice way.

The group was smaller than we had hoped, as several were scared off by the short spring-like rain shower that greeted us at 2:10. It only lasted ten minutes, and I regaled the tour takers with stories about the region, explaining why a rum house might be a very advantageous thing to build near an Indian fort filled with trade goods and food. Such trades were later ruled illegal, as rum tended to render the local natives unable to make wise business decisions. Notably, the tavern was over 100 meters from the fort, the distance a fire-tipped arrow can fly when shot by an angry Lenape the morning after, affected by a wicked hangover and the discovery of an empty wampum bag at his side.

The sun came out and the waters subsided quickly and we were on our way. I showed them the Poe House, built on top of Manetta Creek, and Manetta Tavern, also built on top of the creek, and talked about S.W., the lone woman warrior who took on the big power brokers of New York City to preserve the Poe house as a museum and to save Manetta Creek from being pumped dry, during the building of the foundation of the large building that replaced the Poe House, and to save all the trees in the area from dying of thirst now that Manetta was dry. Later on that night, I was to see her across a crowded room at a fundraiser, and greet her, and tell her what I’d just said to the tour, but more of that story of coincidence later. I showed our tour group the musical mural on West 4th Street, which was enjoyable.

All the people on the tour wanted to go visit the American Indian Community House at 708 Broadway, right off of the Sapohannikan Trail, so we did, and they bought lots of good stuff at the gift shop on the third floor. There was a kind elder native woman at the counter, it may have been Monica Greene, I’m not sure. They had plenty of copies of Native New Yorkers on the shelves, which was good to see. We looked at some of Leota Lone Dog’s pictures of Native New Yorkers from the past. But what was so great about visiting the Community House was that it shows that Native people still live in New York, and in greater numbers than ever, 84,000 strong. The phone number there is (212)598-0100. Website is http://www.aich.org.

We went to the Kintecoy, Cooper Square, and smudged and sang a song for the sun, and from the west there came a line of pagan dancers, beautiful women in beautiful costumes, accompanied by musicians, and they took over the great Medicine Wheel circle on the traffic island, and did a dance ritual for a long time, and we joined forces with them, to the delight of many spectators. My smudge stick was billowing in my hand, and so I walked clockwise around the group of dancers for seven rounds, as the smoke washed over their sinuous bodies flowing with the music. Earlier that day, I had said that the color yellow, music and the great mother come from the west, and indeed it was true at this moment. Everyone was very impressed with the power of those yellow ribbons. It was a great ending to our journey, and so some left, but most of us made it to St. Mark’s Chapel, to view the burial vault of Peter Stuyvesant The flag was at half mast, as if for him, but really from Ronald Reagan, a similar bigoted, but devout saber-rattler from a slightly more recent time. I was kind in my words for Peter, as he brought an end to the Kieft war which had raged for many years.

Then Roxy and I split up, and she went to see the Lesbian Parade down fifth, and I found Union Square, quite by accident and watched an interesting round robin political debate going on, and spoke to a very radical guy named Paul Revere, who had a lot to say, and recommended I read the website http://www.infowars.com. I ran into my old friend Barry, a wild and crazy guy and he gave me a ticket to a fund raiser for Kerry and for We Are the World, and I accepted. I went looking for Roxy, but had missed the parade, so I went to Washington Square Park where the parade ended up, expecting to find her, but though I looked for an hour I did not. It was a festive atmosphere all over town, with crowds of happy people wandering to and fro, almost like Mardi Gras. The beautiful weather added to the good feeling of love and playful rebellion everyone was feeling. In Washington Square Park there was free music everywhere and people with funny signs and buttons and tee shirts. Most prominent was a five girl cheerleader squad who led rather clever group cheers protesting in favor of womens’ rights and other political ends. No Roxy! I thought maybe she met the girl of her dreams.

I ran to find the theater the Webster, where this fundraiser was; it was further than I expected, and was allowed in. There I saw yet more funny skits and slogans and great music by the band Jubilee and Chocolate Thai. They are so good, I saw them sing on a subway car for five minutes a year ago, and gave them money, and recognized them when they appeared on stage. Their islands flavored music is full of positive upbeat feelings, and sung with sincerity. I told them I would plug them and sing their praises in my weblog, and so I am. (I need to find their info to pass along, but its missing. I will fill it in later)

The event was organized by Rick Ulfik of We The World, (not We Are the World, that’s a song) and he was there, although he didn’t remember meeting me at the United Nations for the Gandhi/King event so long ago, so long before 9-11-01. I bought a copy of How to Get Stupid White Men Out of Office from a graceful model-like Indian beauty named Naina who had a great stage presence, and who was director of a youth action political group, and Program Director and Network Coordinator for the League of Pissed Off Voters. (Naina@indyvoter.org) Their slogan is “Revolutionizing Democracy!” She could be President some day! She edited the book, so I had her sign it. She wrote, “For Evan, keep fighting the good fight!” Its published by Soft Skull Press, 71 Bond Street, Brooklyn, NY 11237. (a top radical press) It is an excellent book that sticks to a theme of 20-something youth who get elected to high political positions and make intelligent choices. It is also a book with an attitude, and pretty funny at times. There is a whole chapter on my man Jason West. (No, I didn’t mean it that way, and anyway Jason is not Gay and neither am I). The League of Pissed Off Voters has an office at 226 W 135th St. 4th floor, NY NY 10030. (212)283-8879.

Also there was Alan Shogel, also of We The World, who produced this evenings’ activities. I spoke with a man from Billionaires for Bush, a funny WTO-type theater protest group who arent’ really billionaires but dress like them. They say they rarely get bounced from events, unless they mention Carlyle, and then they go to jail just like everyone else who mentions that word. The fund raiser is for Eleven Days of Global Unity, a good cause; a series of events that will begin on September 13th of this year, at The September Space at 520 8th Ave. at 37th St. 11th floor. Reception is on Monday September 13th at 5 to 8 PM, with live music and refreshments. Check it out at http://www.wetheworld.org/11days. There will be a public signing of the Global Declaration of Interdependence!!!! Talk about being a witness to history!

It was after that I saw S.W. across the room and waved to her, but it took a while for us to make our way through the crowd. She told me she was in Raging Bull and her scene was filmed right in this building and she took me to this old bar and re-enacted her scene for me. She also told me this crazy story about how Robert DiNero was at the bottom of the staircase we were standing on, and she was at the top (where we stood) and said, “So who is this Robert De Neerio anyway?” Apparently they pointed to him and he saluted her, and she got the part. I have to see the movie again and look for her; she was a bit younger. Anyway, after that story she introduced me to “Alice”, and we immediately found we had a lot to talk about, so we all went out to dinner, but that place was closed, so we all ended up finding our way to this no-name Vietnamese place, also synchronistically! We were there well over an hour, and all kinds of speeches were made, and I networked with a ton of interesting people.